The Pearl

The Pearl Like his father and grandfather before him Kino is a poor diver gathering pearls from the gulf beds that once brought great wealth to the kings of Spain and now provide Kino Juana and their infant

Title: The Pearl

Author: John Steinbeck

ISBN: 9780141394909

Page: 453

Format: Paperback

Like his father and grandfather before him, Kino is a poor diver, gathering pearls from the gulf beds that once brought great wealth to the kings of Spain and now provide Kino, Juana, and their infant son with meager subsistence Then, on a day like any other, Kino emerges from the sea with a pearl as large as a sea gull s egg, as perfect as the moon With the pearl comeLike his father and grandfather before him, Kino is a poor diver, gathering pearls from the gulf beds that once brought great wealth to the kings of Spain and now provide Kino, Juana, and their infant son with meager subsistence Then, on a day like any other, Kino emerges from the sea with a pearl as large as a sea gull s egg, as perfect as the moon With the pearl comes hope, the promise of comfort and of security.A story of classic simplicity, based on a Mexican folk tale, The Pearl explores the secrets of man s nature, greed, the darkest depths of evil, and the luminous possibilities of love.

1 thought on “The Pearl”

John Steinbeck's chilling novella The Pearl is the short story selection in the group catching up on classics for January 2017. In his retelling of a Mexican folktale, Steinbeck tells the tale of a fisherman named Kino who finds the pearl of the world on one of his dives. Showing how money is the root of all evil, Steinbeck delivers a poignant tale. First published in 1945, The Pearl is the story of Kino, Juana, and their baby Coyotito who one day discover a giant pearl on one of their fishing e [...]

Steinbeck does it again. All my experiences with his writings have been fantastic. Every word, every description, every plot point, every twist - perfect!The Pearl is very short but very amazing. It is a tale of greed and how people around wealth or who come upon sudden wealth are affected. Many of us think our life would be perfect if we won the lottery, but I think all of us could benefit from the lessons in this story.I picked this book now because I am on vacation in Hatteras, NC, and the lo [...]

“It was a morning like other mornings and yet perfect among mornings.”This novella opens with the simple contentment of a young Mexican pearlfisher: at peace with his life, wife, and baby, living in a tightknit community, and accompanied by the “Song of the Family” that plays in his mind.Pearls, by contrast, are a consequence of imperfection - possibly of pain or discomfort. But from the irritation caused by stray sand, rare transfixing beauty can occur. Unlike gold and diamonds, a pearl [...]

Innocence turning to greed, and how people react to another man's good fortune, is the major theme of John Steinbeck's popular novella, The Pearl, set apparently in the early 20th century, ( the author is rather vague on the subject) in the then small, sleepy town, now a major city of La Paz, Baja California, Mexico, near the tip of the astonishing long peninsula, 775 miles Our main character is Kino, a young, poor Mexican man in his early 20's of Indian extraction, living in a remote part of th [...]

“They had made songs to the fishes, to the sea in anger and to the sea in calm, to the light and the dark and the sun and the moon, and the songs were all in Kino and in his people – every song that had ever been made, even the ones forgotten.”Can you hear it? A melody shrouded in ancestral mystery can be heard amidst the roaring waves lapping at the shores of this pulsating narration. Summoning songs of despair and songs of hope, soothing lullabies and wrathful incantations, this folklori [...]

david writes this: I'm convinced that the general besmirchers of Steinbeck are fucktards, asswads, and vibrating pustules's nice as a reader (bad, i guess, as a reviewer) when a writer achieves can-do-no-wrong status. reading steinbeck i feel less distance between the writer -> his words -> myself than with nearly any other writer. his prose stylings can't touch his contemporaries, his structure and pacing can be sloppy, he's sentimental, preachy, overly didactic, and his themes arrive wit [...]

This is a deceptively simple Mexican fable. It's written by Steinbeck, so of course, it's written beautifully. The story is pretty straightforward--poor, uneducated peasant finds monster pearl and now has everything previously denied to him within his grasp. Or does he?*** SPOILERS AHEAD ***Kino is happy despite his poverty and his low position on the social scale. He and the other natives in his village are under the control of the wealthy Spanish people who have taken up residence in the nicer [...]

Overall, it's just not very good. I keep debating whether I should rate it one star or two, but ultimately the definition of the two-star rating, "it was ok," pushes me over the edge. It wasn't ok; nothing about this was ok.The writing style is bad, though I haven't read enough Steinbeck to know whether his stilted, awkward prose is just an affectation for this work (in an insulting attempt to illustrate that his main characters are poorly educated), or whether he is just always like this. His [...]

So, John Steinbeck and his editor walk into a bar. . . (disclaimer: I'm making this up) and John's editor says, "John, it's so bor-ing being your editor. I mean, you've written the Great American novel, you've won the Pulitzer, you've fought for the poor man, you've made your fiction read like non-fiction and your non-fiction read like fiction."John lights a smoke, takes a slug of beer, grunts. Reports from the war hum from a radio at the bar and his editor finds the courage to continue. "Well. [...]

Read it and philosophize while you read it and weep.Sometimes I have to wonder what the people who write the back blurbs of these books are thinking (or smoking). The back says "THE PEARL is a book to be read many times and cherished forever." What they're talking about, I can't imagine. If you choose to get pissed over and over again, then by all means keep reading this tragic story. I get what Steinbeck is saying in his beautiful writing voice - to be content with what is had and to not let th [...]

‭The pearl, John Ernst Steinbeck (1902 - 1968)The Pearl is a novella by American author John Steinbeck, first published in 1947. It is the story of a pearl diver, Kino, and explores man's nature as well as greed, defiance of societal norms, and evil. Steinbeck's inspiration was a Mexican folk tale from La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico, which he had heard in a visit to the formerly pearl-rich region in 1940. In 1947, it was adapted into a Mexican film named La perla and in 1987 into a cult K [...]

Poor pearl diver in South America finds giant-ass pearl, decides to sell it and use the money to buy medicine for his baby, who just got bitten by a scorpion. The mierda hits the fan, people die, everything generally goes to hell in a handbasket, and it all happens in about the space of time it took you to read this review. Verdict: meh. Read for: 10th grade English

This is the first Steinbeck's book I've read, though it won't be the last, despite the horrible first impression. I hate everything in this book - from it's anticlimactic writing to its incommodious characters. There is nothing worth praise in here. After I reached the end, I've been so angry and almost ready to punch something. Poor Indian, who lives in the South America with his wife and their baby, finds giant pearl, decides to sell it and then use the money to buy medicine for his child, who [...]

John Steinbeck adapted a Mexican folk tale into a novella about fate, evil, the perils of greed, and the plight of oppressed people. The infant son of Juana and Kino, a fisherman and pearl diver, is stung by a scorpion. The doctor refuses to treat the baby because Kino does not have the money to pay him, and because the affluent Spanish colonialists look down at the natives. Kino dives for pearls in the hope that he could afford to pay a doctor, and comes up with a huge, valuable pearl--the "Pea [...]

It was a big mistake I made 3 days ago, I was going to start 'Charlotte's Web' but instead I started 'The Pearl' thinking it was written before ‘Of Mice and Men’ and on just finishing I found it was written much later. All I remember is my decision to read books in sequence they were published. Anyway it can’t be undone.The Review:“In the town they tell the story of the great pearl” how it was found and how it was lost again. They tell of Kino, the fisherman, and of his wife, Juana, an [...]

A simple story about a young man who finds a pearl, and the tragic consequences that greed can bring, yet I came away from this absolutely gobsmacked with the intensity and beauty of Steinbeck's writing. It was powerful, gripping and heartbreaking, all in less than 100 pages. I can only liken this to Hemingway's 'The Old Man and the Sea' - utterly flawless.

i have had this sitting on my bookshelf for a while now (about 5 years! what?!) so i finally decided to read it. and, although i didnt enjoy it as much as some of his other novels, i appreciated the cautionary message of the story and the classic steinbeck writing style. 3 stars

I can’t help it. I’m seeing everything I’m reading these days through the metaphor of our insane political culture. Maybe that’s because we are in the midst of iconic metaphors—the stuff of Shakespeare, Aristotle, and more recently John Steinbeck.The Pearl, based on a classic Mexican folk tale, tells the story of Kino, Juana, and their infant son. They are simple people, whose life explodes with a scorpion bite. Poison! Poison leads to a need to pay for a bogus antidote, which leads to [...]

This book is an allegory of money or, at least, a parable on the theme of physical possession.All is symbol in this book, the pearl, object coveted by bead researchers, like money, sought by those who do not, are in the center.The story takes place in Mexican California, near the end of the peninsula. The protagonists are poor (as seems to me at Steinbeck) and one of them will find, so to say, the gem. I'll let you see what can happen to the poor who die of a magical stroke let fly fortune Thin [...]

4+★This short novella (90 pages) brings to mind the biblical parable of The Pearl Of Great Price. Like the parables, the telling juxtaposes contrasting motifs of good and evil and what defines them or makes them so. How sudden wealth can corrupt depending on one’s choices, needs, or morals. Is it better to let things be or risk irreperable change for possible transformation or benefit? The reader has much to ponder throughout the pages which turn beautifully. I could hear the sounds of water [...]

I read this book in high school (doesn’t everyone?) and then recently re-read it, surprising even myself. Initially I had picked it up because it was such a small book, and the 89 pages were just long enough to get me through the day. I normally try and avoid massive literature greats like Steinbeck, as the easy reading I normally do helps me to escape my reality without a huge deal of thought. Anyway, Steinbeck’s story (for those who don’t know) tells the tale of Kino, his young bride Jua [...]

This is one of the first novels I have ever read. The story is simple but very genuine. The plot is interesting and the messages the story contains are timeless and universal. It is also a very quick read.

Steinbeck's tragic novella is about a poor pearl diver, Kino, and what happens to him and his family after he finds "the pearl of the world". This great pearl should bring incredible wealth to it's owner, but the ways of the world are not set to benefit Kino which he quickly learns. This book is likable and easy to read, even for people who are not generally fond of Steinbeck's writing, I would think.